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Precaution

This video is part of 82nd and Fifth, a series that invites curators from across the Museum to talk about an artwork that changed the way they see the world.

“A lot of us are inclined to only see his cute side, but in fact there is a lot more to him than that.”

Curator Isabel Stünkel on an ancient Egyptian statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called “William”).


Contributors

Isabel Stünkel
Curator, Department of Egyptian Art

Photography by Mark Morosse


Hippopotamus ("William"), Faience
ca. 1961–1878 B.C.
Paris-New York by Peter Kenny
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This avant-garde French table is a statement of arrival in America.
Peter M. Kenny
September 10, 2013
Hyperreality by Kim Benzel
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Kim Benzel
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Eternity by Maxwell K. Hearn
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How this Chinese scroll confronts us with our own mortality.
Maxwell K. Hearn
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